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The primal zerg from StarCraft 2 will be landing in the Nexus next week!

The Heroes of the Storm official Twitter account confirmed that the new Hero, Dehaka, will be available to play starting next week. If you want to see an overview of Dehaka's abilities, check our article here.

You might have heard about yesterday's massive PTR patch. It makes sense to wonder if all the new features and hero reworks will be going live along with Dehaka next week. This is not unlikely at all, but we will have to wait for an official announcement.

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Voice chat is finally available in Heroes of the Storm and this post by Blizzard will guide you through the basics of the system.
All players must opt-in to join the team voice channel at the start of a game or upon entering a draft lobby. If you don't have a microphone, you will still be able to hear your team. The voice chat tab in the options menu can be used to adjust all settings to your liking. Use the Test button to hear how you'll sound in-game and don't forget to set up your Push-to-Talk Key.
Blizzard (Source)
We’re excited to announce that voice communication is now available in Heroes of the Storm! Whether you find yourself in a draft lobby, partied with a friend or two, or with your whole squad in Team League, voice communication will free your hands from the shackles of typing and make it easier than ever to coordinate with your teammates. Before you head in-game to try it out, take a moment to learn how voice channels work in Heroes and get to know the various settings you can adjust to make voice communication your own.
Team and Party Voice
We’ve added voice channels to Heroes of the Storm to accommodate both party voice and team voice. If you’re in a party, you’ll automatically be added to your party’s voice channel, and only party members will hear what you have to say. The opposite is also true: if you’re in a partial party and using the party voice channel, you’ll be unable to speak to or hear allies outside your party unless you switch to the team voice channel.
By default, all players must opt-in to join the team voice channel at the start of a game or upon entering a draft lobby. A notification will appear in chat to remind you that team voice is available, and you can click it to easily join the channel. Keep in mind that voice channels—even party voice—are completely optional. You can use the new voice chat tab in the options menu to adjust auto-join settings and notification sounds to your heart’s content.
Voice Settings
Digging a bit further into voice settings, you can click the dropdown menus at the top to pick which device you’ll use to hear your allies’ voices, and set up the microphone you’d like to use for your own. You can click the Test button to hear how you’ll sound to your teammates in-game. However, even if you don’t have a microphone, you can still join party and team voice channels to listen-in as your allies make plans and shotcall.
As mentioned previously, the checkboxes under Auto-Join Voice and Notification Sounds on the left side of the voice chat options menu can be used to select which voice channels you’d like to join automatically during each game, as well as to enable or disable any voice notification sounds.
Click the Transmission Mode dropdown to decide whether you’d like to set your microphone to Push-to-Talk or Open Mic. When using push-to-talk, your allies will only hear you while you’re holding down your push-to-talk hotkey (the ` key by default). With open mic, they’ll hear everything you have to say. If you do opt for an open mic, you can adjust the sensitivity slider to stop your microphone from transmitting sound under a certain volume. Finally, run a quick test to make sure your mic is sounding good and your sensitivity is set correctly—broadcasting noise is a surefire way to get muted by your teammates!
In addition to push-to-talk, you can set up hotkeys to quickly switch between party and team voice channels, or to turn your microphone on and off.
In-Game Voice
Outside of the voice chat options menu, you’ll see a voice widget appear in the top-left corner of most game menus. Clicking this widget will allow you to quickly join, switch, or leave a voice channel. Once you enter a game, you’ll find this widget on the tab screen.
You’ll also find microphone and speaker icons across from player names on the tab screen, which you can click to mute or unmute allies individually.
We’ve also added a new reporting option called Abusive Voice that you can use to report players specifically for misbehavior over voice. Additionally, we’ve implemented a voice silence penalty that’s separate from chat silence penalties. This means that players who are frequently reported for Abusive Voice can receive a voice silence, which will prevent them from speaking in team voice for the duration of that penalty. They can, however, still join the team voice channel to listen to allied comms, and can still join and use the party voice channel normally.
We hope the addition of voice in Heroes of the Storm will help you and your allies communicate more effectively on the road to your next string of victories, and perhaps make a new friend or two along the way.
Until next time, we’ll see you in the Nexus!

Blizzard implemented voice chat and applied balanced changes and various bug fixes in this week's patch.
Voice chat is now enabled on live servers and in addition to bug fixes, the following Heroes received balance changes:
Maiev: The latest changes are aimed at lowering her survivability and burst damage throughput.
Malthael: Healing from Soul Ripping Minions decreased, Hero-only healing increased. Mana cost of Soul Rip has been increased to 25.
Zeratul: Changes to basic & heroic abilities are meant to redistribute his damage, while giving the Hero a slight buff.
Xul: Base stats have been buffed and split-push potential has been toned down.
Sonya: Balance changes for Sonya were supposed to go live on January 24, but Blizzard's implemented them just now. The changes include a basic attack damage reduction, Poisoned Spear & Nerves of Steel talent adjustments.
Blizzard (Source)
We’ve just released a patch to the live servers in order to implement Voice Communication, as well as apply some balance updates and bug fixes.
General
Voice Communication
Voice Communication has been added to Heroes of the Storm! Read the Voice Communication blog for more information about how to use it in-game.
Heroes
Assassin
Maiev

Stats
Basic Attack damage reduced from 88 to 84
Talents
Level 7
Poisoned Spear (Q)
Damage reduced from 125% to 100% of Ancient Spear’s damage.
Level 16
Nerves of Steel (Active)
Duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds
Shield amount reduced from 30% to 25% of Maximum Health
Cooldown reduced from 70 to 60 seconds
Bug Fixes
Heroes, Abilities, and Talents
Diablo: Lightning Breath sound effects will no longer stop playing before the Ability is finished channeling.
Junkrat: Heroes killed by Concussion Mine will no longer respawn at their death location and then slide across the Battleground.
Junkrat: Issuing movement commands during Rocket Ride will no longer cause Junkrat to become separated from his Mount.
Junkrat: Movement commands that the player did not issue will no longer appear on the terrain in front of RIP-Tire’s model.
Junkrat: Targeting unpathable terrain with Rocket Ride will no longer cause Total Mayhem Grenades to visually persist on the Battleground.
Junkrat: Concussion Mine can no longer displace Leoric from Wraith Walk’s starting location if the Mine is detonated in the same moment that Wraith Walk ends.
Li Li: After learning the Lighting Serpent Talent, Cloud Serpent attacks that are bouncing to additional targets when the Ability expires will now correctly deal damage.
Lt. Morales: The tooltip for the Healing Beam icon next to Lt. Morales’ in-game portrait will now correctly display the Ability’s cooldown duration.
Malfurion: An ally who is affected by multiple Regrowths will now be correctly healed by Moonfire and have Stuns, Roots, and Slows removed by Nature's Cure.
Movement Abilities: Certain movement-based Abilities, like Greymane’s Darkflight or Chen’s Flying Kick, will no longer fail to move the Hero toward a target currently affected by Varian’s Taunt or Garrosh’s Warlord's Challenge.
Sgt. Hammer: Can now correctly deploy Biotic Emitters on Volskaya Foundry while in Siege Mode.
The Butcher: Fixed an issue that prevented The Butcher from collecting Meat while piloting the Triglav Protector, Dragon Knight, or Garden Terror.

Maiev goes live tomorrow and we have a guide for the latest Warcraft Assassin to join the roster.
It's time for Maiev to enter the Nexus! Learn more about the latest Hero in our guide!
Feel free to leave your thoughts, suggestions or guide feedback here. Maiev should go live on February 6, 2018, and this article will be updated with the official patch notes once they are out.
Maiev Build Guide
Maiev Patch Notes
Maiev Talent Calculator
Blizzard (Source)
Maiev Shadowsong stood watch over the imprisoned Betrayer for ten thousand years, and hunted him relentlessly after he was released. Some say she’s determined; others say she’s obsessed. Either way, she will stop at nothing to ensure the security of her world. Get all the necessary information and gameplay tips on our newest Assassin Hero, Maiev, The Warden, in this spotlight video!

Heroes of the Storm Highlights are back with another fun episode of WTF Moments!
Episode 102 kicks off with an Abathur slap fest, Blaze entering his Bunker to soak Pyroblast and Garrosh throwing D'Va's Self-Destruct into enemies, killing three of them!
Don't forget to submit your own replays here for a chance to be featured in an upcoming episode and let us know your favorite moments in the comments below!
Previous Episodes
WTF Moments Episode 101
WTF Moments Episode 100
WTF Moments Episode 99 & Best of 2017

Our sixteenth Heroes of the Storm Meta Tier list for the Maiev patch of February is here!
We present our sixteenth Heroes of the Storm Meta Tier List for the Maiev patch of February 2018.
Note: This list also takes the February 9 balance patch into account.
Welcome to Icy Veins's Meta Tier List for the Maiev patch. The goal if of this list is to try and detail game's current metagame state. The prime goal of such lists is to inform players regarding popular and trending team composition drafting strategies (i.e. the drafting metagame). Although tier listings are generally the product of balance, many factors come into play when discussing the relative perceived strengths of heroes, including player regions, maps, play style, skill level, and, of course, personal perception. As such, any tier list—including this very one—should never be interpreted as gospel, but rather, as a guide to better grasp what to expect with regards to typical drafting experiences. One useful application of such lists is to allow you know which heroes to look out for in terms of practice and counterplay, ultimately improving your knowledge of the game.
Using the list
As stated above, tier lists are easy to mistake for gospel. As new strategies are discovered and experimented with, so changes the perception of the relative strengths of each hero. Tier lists still prove to be useful as a snapshot of player expectations in terms of drafting. Although it is generally considered preferable to focus on high tier heroes (Prime and Core tiers), it is important to note that Heroes of the Storm's wild character and map designs make it so that any given hero's tier position is prone to fluctuate depending on the situation at hand.
One classic example of such is that of Kerrigan on the Infernal Shrines map. Although we currently judge her to be a mid-tier hero, her drafting priority shoots up to first-pick or first-ban material on this specific map due to the nature of its objective. Certain heroes also synergise so well with each other that the sole fact of having the opportunity of drafting them together is generally enough to increase their potential. Tassadar and Tracer, for instance, are generally nightmarish to deal with for many. There are too many examples of these interactions to reasonably produce here, but we invite you to consult our guides to know exactly where and when each hero shines. The guides have been linked in the lists below for your convenience - just click any of the hero names to access them.
A ↑ next to a hero's name means its tier list position has increased since the previous month whereas a ↓ means just the opposite. Additionally, a + or - sign indicates short-to-medium term predictions (which is to say, about a month) for tier increase(s) or decrease(s), respectively. These are often updated after significant balance patches and/or when clear trends are emerging.
If you're newer to the game, also consider visiting our glossary for a comprehensive list of discrete Heroes of the Storm terms.
Current ranked mode map rotation

Prime Tier
Warrior
Assassin
Support
Specialist
Arthas
Genji
-
-
E.T.C.
Greymane
Sonya
Hanzo
Maiev (new)
Prime tier heroes are considered to be extremely strong in all situations, and show no obvious weakness. They are very often banned or picked right away, as they generally dictate the pace of most matches.

Niche Tier
Warrior
Assassin
Support
Specialist
Chen
Cho'gall
Tassadar
Gazlowe
Cho'gall
Raynor
Medivh
Rexxar
Valeera↓
Probius↓
Varian (Twin Blades of Fury)
Sgt. Hammer↓
Niche tier heroes have niche application on certain maps or for certain team compositions. They may also picked to "round out" your team composition when your team composition is missing out on key components, such as a "jungler" (mercenary camps), a solo laner, or solid waveclear.

Lost Vikings Tier
The Lost Vikings
Bottom tier Heroes are deemed to be either considerably weaker than the majority of other Heroes, or much more challenging to play properly. Although they may situationally shine, these Heroes are generally avoided by most players.

Metagame assessment
Maiev: Where do I even begin? Despite heavy-handed nerfs delivered less than a week after her release, Maiev continues to dominate popularity (read: is banned about 5 times more than she is played at all levels) and top win rates. The fact that I'm not sure what exactly contributes to her success is probably a good indicator of what actually contributes to her success: everything. High survivability, high mobility, high damage potential through Fan of Knives's ability to reset, the ability to both set up and follow up for and on crowd control through Spirit of Vengeance + Umbral Bind, serviceable waveclear, and Vault of the Wardens on a ridiculously short cooldown for good measure to make her an unviable target for heroic ability chains. Warden's Cage ended up the favoured heroic ability choice for Maiev, and it's rather easy to see why; it just works well with the rest of her kit on top of being quite easy for anyone to use, though Containment Disc is not to be underestimated either. She's at the top of the food chain, so Prime tier it is. Expect further nerfs.
Jaina: Jaina was last month's surprise for me, which is why I had her marked for promotion. I slightly feared Genji players, but after witnessing some more competent Jaina play (including my own not-so-competent experimentation), it's safe to say that Summon Water Elemental is absolutely key to dealing with him (along pretty much every other assassin in the game). For games with little melee assassin pressure, Ring of Frost remains a powerful win condition. Jaina also sports what is arguably the game's best waveclear potential, and can deal with mercenary camps extremely well with Frost Shards and Ice Lance.
Malthael: I can certainly see how Malthael's rework may have seemed rather grim to anyone underestimating the power of cleaving attacks. This change, though accompanied by slight nerfs to his damage and survivability, allowed his already powerful laning to improve, just as with his ability to deal with mercenary camps. One should never underestimate the power of PvE, particularly in less organised play. Furthermore, his reliance upon Tormented Souls was reduced, allowing for Last Rites to actually get some playtime. I've been impressed with it, and I'm probably going to update his builds to reflect this newfound power.
Abathur: Abathur is the kind of hero that comes and goes with the metagame state and who generally thrives in assassin-oriented states. As with Genji, I wouldn't be fooled by his limited winrates; he just simply tends to do better at higher level, more organised play, and particularly in longer matches. To avoid on Haunted Mines and Braxis Holdout. Please pick your Ultimate Evolution target responsibly, and go for an assassin, with Maiev, Genji, Hanzo, and Jaina making incredible targets. Incidentally, avoid Evolve Monstrosity; it has been tested and rejected a long time ago.
Tychus: Not a big leap in tier, but a leap nonetheless. He went from seeing pretty much no play for quite a while to seeing some, including tournament play. As expected, he does well against Blaze and a few other bruisers, on top of being on the more resilient side of ranged assassins. Commandeer Odin is excellent, but the real sleeper here is Neosteel Coating, which can do funny things with Relentless Soldier.
Probius: Nearly as unpopular as The Lost Vikings. Though I don't think he's bad, I certainly think he does not have a place in the current meta. All of the top picks do extremely well against him, as does diving in general. I really wish I had more insights here, but the very few times I did see him in the last month, it was rather sad to witness.
Sgt. Hammer: I initially had her as viable, but upon reading user comments, I had to agree: she does extremely well against team compositions that cannot deal with her, and poorly otherwise. This is basically what the Niche tier should be defined by. We could discuss at length why this design is rather unhealthy for the game, but I think Blizzard has recognized this by not releasing a single specialist in over a year.